Tuesday, April 13, 2010

U.S. Senate Set to Consider NSA Chief as Head of Cyber Command

The Senate plans to hold a hearing on Thursday to consider the long-delayed nomination of Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, as commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command.

The command was scheduled to start operations on Oct. 1, 2009. But the Senate held up Alexander's nomination, which includes a promotion to a four-star general, and the command's formal establishment because of concerns about its relationship with the NSA and the militarization of cyberspace.

No senator on the Armed Services Committee strongly opposes Alexander serving as both head of NSA and the Cyber Command, but they plan to ask tough questions during the hearing, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group that tracks the security and use of citizens' personal information stored in computer networks, charged in a bulletin released on April 9 that the Cyber Command will "give the Defense Department broad new authority over the Internet."